


Fleeting Moments in the Eternal City

by UnproblematicMe



Series: Reverse Omens: Golden Snake and Black Cat [4]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Angel Crowley (Good Omens), Bottom Aziraphale (Good Omens), Demon Aziraphale (Good Omens), Dominant Crowley, M/M, Scene: Rome 41 AD (Good Omens) (losely based on), Top Crowley (Good Omens), VERY light bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:07:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23155324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnproblematicMe/pseuds/UnproblematicMe
Summary: After their fallout at Golgotha, Crowley tracks Aziraphale down in Rome.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Reverse Omens: Golden Snake and Black Cat [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1645828
Comments: 26
Kudos: 188





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sadwendigo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadwendigo/gifts).



> This is the first explicit part of the series. I'm aware that not every reader of the series might like smut so I made the dirty part skippable, “Skippable” meaning "not vital to follow the plot in the future". So only chapter 2 is actually explicit and you do not have to read it to understand this story or any future stories of this series. You should however have read "Crossroads" to know what is going on here. ;)  
> Chapter 1 and 3 are still mature due to language and innuendos.  
> I will upload all the chapters during the day, after finding the time to proofread. So if you want to read the story in one go, give me an hour or two. All three chapters should be up by then :)
> 
> With a huge Thankyou to Sadwendigo for making my insomnia much more enjoyable due to chats with her. Love you!

“Gimme a jug of whatever you think is drinkable, will you?” Crowley told the pretty young lady behind the counter with a light smile.

“Housebrown?” she suggested. “Two sesterces the jug.”

“Sounds go… well, not horrible,” the angel sighed.

The woman handed him his drink and, after thanking her, Crowley turned around to let his eyes wander. This was a nice but not overly posh place. The dreary grey stone walls had been decorated with cheap yet colorful tapestries and despite the dark wood of the tables and chairs the atmosphere felt not oppressive thanks to the big open taproom.

The tavern was busy but not overcrowded so Crowley could easily study the faces of the guests. The familiar one he was looking for was not among them. He sighed. He had looked for Aziraphale for years before Jesus’ words at their parting had come to his mind again.

_After all, all roads lead to Rome_

It was not much, but it was more than the nothing he had found so far. Knowing more than others was kind of Jesus’ thing. But he had given him this hint – if it was one – years ago. What if Aziraphale had long gone? Then again, Aziraphale was one for settling. Unlike other demons he did like consistency, getting to know people and places. And in Rome there was a lot to see and learn. If Aziraphale had the chance to stay a while, he would. Of course a demon had to go where Hell sent them, but Aziraphale had a lot of freedom. Apparently he was quite good at wrapping Lucifer around his finger. Crowley smiled at the thought. Of course Aziraphale was good at that.

He finished his drink and was just about to leave, when he felt trouble brewing. His eyes fell on a beautiful woman outside the tavern. Her golden hair reflected the late afternoon sun and her sinfully formed hips swayed as she walked by the window. A spike of lust and hunger went through the men in the tavern who saw her. That was normal and as the moment passed, the men’s emotions balanced out again. Except for one. A tall muscular brunette who sat alone at one of the tables licked his lips, threw a few coins beside his jug and left the tavern. His selfish want and uncontrolled greed radiated from him, calling the angel to action.

Unfortunately the man slipped out just before a group of six already tipsy men stumbled in, holding Crowley up. In the busy streets he lost sight of his target, only his heightened desire making it possible to follow him. But it became harder to focus on him between the streams of people with all their sinful thoughts, their anger, their lust and greed.

But Crowley managed to follow the man in question to a less frequented but shadier area. He could not see him but still felt him to the East. The West. No, South. What the Hell? Suddenly the feelings of greed and lust seemed to come from different directions. Panicked Crowley tried to make out his initial target but could not spot him. A scream alarmed him and he rushed towards a dark alley. As he ran around the corner, he almost collided with the blonde woman he had tried to protect. She was upset, her hair a bit disheveled, but otherwise she seemed unharmed.

“Don’t touch me,” she snapped at him, scared.

“I won’t harm you,” he promised and of course she believed him. “What happened?”

“The men in this city have gone mad, that’s what happened,” she hissed and pushed him aside to leave.

With furrowed brows Crowley scratched his head and watched her disappear. It was then that he heard fighting noises down the alley. Curious he followed them and to his surprise found the brunette man from the tavern in a violent fist fight with three other man. Between punches and kicks they snarled at each other.

“I saw her first!”

“She’s mine!”

“You can have her. After me!”

“Like Hell I will wait!”

They did not notice Crowley, but the angel spotted a chubby figure with curly blond hair in the shadows just a second before it disappeared. Immediately he drew his supernatural focus from the human and felt out for demonic signatures. For a second he felt the unique and familiar aura of Aziraphale, but then it was gone again.

*

With a deep sigh Aziraphale closed the door of his inn room behind him. Frowning he took in his new abode and snapped his fingers. A fireplace now warmed the chamber, the mattress and the sheets on the bed were softer, the blanket thicker and the wine one the table of better quality. After another critical look, Aziraphale miracled a warm carpet on the cold floor. Finally satisfied, he nodded, with a sigh dropped his bag in a corner and sank into the chair next to the fire.

Grumbling he helped himself to some wine. He had really gotten used to his old inn room. But of course Corael had to show up. He really did not need to regularly stumble over the angel he cared way more for than he should and more than was mutual. So he had taken his business to a different part of town. Maybe the angel would not be in Rome long.

He closed his eyes as the exquisite wine touched his lips and – somewhat appeased with the world – let it roll over his tongue.

“My respect, kitten,” a familiar voice sounded. “Pitting four wannabe rapists against each other in a violent fight while the victim escapes. Very demonic and still very you.”

The shock sent the drink down Aziraphale’s wrong pipe. Coughing he whirled around and spotted a beautiful, slender angel sitting on the window sill. Elegantly Corael had swung one leg over the other while his upper body leant against the frame. He was dressed in a simple white robe, the only spot of color, besides the long red curls falling on his shoulders, was a golden pin holding the fabric together.

“Corael!” Aziraphale wanted to sound intimidating and furious, but that was ruined by the aftershocks of his coughing fit.

“Oh, I changed it.”

“What?”

“My name,” the angel said. “’Corael’ – t’is a bit too on the nose for an angel undercover.”

“What’s it now?”

“Crowley.”

“Oh, that sounds nice,” Aziraphale smiled carefully. But then he remembered himself and narrowed his eyes. “What do you want? So far I did nothing in Rome that could have bothered Heaven too much.”

“What?” Crowley frowned. “No, it’s not about that.”

“Then why do you break into my room and scare me to death – well, scare me in a way that would have led to my death if I was a human. A human with a very weak heart that is. It’s not that ALL humans drop dead when you scare them. Actually, I do believe it’s rather rare to really be scared to death, but my point is…”

Aziraphale became aware that he was rambling when he saw Crowley slowly rising from his spot on the window sill with a raised brow and a soft smile.

“I missed you, kitten,” he said softly.

“You did?”

“And I want to apologize.”

“You do?”

“Yes to both,” Crowley chuckled. “My behavior at Golgotha, what I said, was wrong.”

Aziraphale swallowed. He did not react at once but the angel filled the silence for him.

“I’m sorry, okay?” he said. “I… was so angry and sad…” he lifted his hands in a placating gesture,”…which is no excuse of course. I had no right to use you to let off steam. I should…”

“Don’t,” Aziraphale said quietly.

“I know you are angry, kitten, but please give me a chance.”

“I’m not angry, Cor… Crowley,” the demon said. “I…just… maybe it’s better if we keep our distance.”

“What?”

“Y… you were right,” Aziraphale stated. “At Golgotha. It was not my decision to make and while I told myself, I did it for you, I did it for myself. Surprise! A demon being selfish.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t want to lose you. And I feared that if Gabriel or Michael or whoever was observing the prison would catch you, I would.”

Crowley studied Aziraphale intensely.

“That’s silly Aziraphale,” he said. “Friendship is like that sometimes. The lines between egoism and altruism blur when you care for someone. It’s not always clear whether you protect them for their sake or because you could not bear to see them hurt. But without you I could have Fallen. You wanted to prevent that.”

Aziraphale with a pained expression shook his head and answered: “I never believed you might Fall. No angel Fell since the rebellion. Angels did worse than what you planned on doing without Falling since the end of Eden. Your superiors would just have recalled you to Heaven for a few centuries. There you would have been among your own and finally notice that you should not sully yourself with me and my presence. I… selfishly tried to keep you from understanding that you should not be around me.”

The demon dared not to look at Crowley. Stubborn he stared at one of the bedposts, intensively studying a knothole in the dark wood.

“Wait,” Crowley’s voice said lightly after a while. “You thought they’d put me in some kind of re-education that would make me realize you’re dangerous and I should stay away from you?”

“Pretty much,” Aziraphale shrugged, trying not to feel hurt by the humor in Crowley’s words.

“For one,” Crowley spoke again. “What kind of delusional training could make me think _you_ are dangerous?”

“Hey!” Indignation made Aziraphale look up and he saw that the angel’s expression had turned serious. Crowley grabbed his chin, forcing him to hold his gaze.

“And for two,” Crowley said. “Nothing, and I repeat, _nothing_ they could do or say could convince me that it would be better for me to be without you.”

Aziraphale felt his cheeks heat up – at the touch and the words.

“B…but, I mean…” he stuttered. “It’s very kind of you to…”

“No, it’s not,” Crowley interrupted. “What you did back then in Jerusalem might have been walking the line between egoistic and noble, but I’m being clearly selfish here. This planet would really, truly and absolutely suck without you. And I should know, I tried for the last 8 years.”

“Oh,” the demon said unoriginally, still blushing furiously and at loss of words.

“So, kitten?” Crowley apparently was amused by Aziraphale’s flustered state. “Do you forgive me?”

“Of… of course,” Aziraphale nodded. “It was not that bad.”

It was a lie and probably easy to see through for Crowley. But Aziraphale clung to the illusion that maybe it was not blatantly obvious how much he had suffered, thinking that the angel did not care for their friendship. And how much he delighted in the fact that he did.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Crowley smiled and let go of the demon’s chin. “We’re good then?”

“If you can forgive me, too,” Aziraphale said, looking to the floor.

“Hey. There is nothing to forgive, kitten,” Crowley answered. “Selfless or not. You acted as my friend. That’s what matters.”

“Oh, that… that’s good then.”

A companionable but yet heavy silence fell. Aziraphale did not know what to say now and apparently the angel did not fare any better.

“How about dinner?” Aziraphale asked after a while to pick up a lighter conversation.

“Sounds great,” Crowley said with an unfamiliar timbre in his voice and an inscrutable expression on his sharp features.

“Jolly good!” Aziraphale beamed. “Petronius’ restaurant is not far! He does remarkable things to oysters! Let me tempt you… Well, not _tempt_ -tempt you obviously. As in ‘demonically tempt’ you. You’re my friend. I would nev…hmph!”

His ramble ended abruptly when he suddenly found his back against the wall, his wrists pinned and an angel’s soft lips against his own. Crowley pressed their bodies together and kissed him, not with much expertise but with a lot of talent and passion.

When Aziraphale’s felt the tip of Crowley’s tongue against his lips, he could not help but comply immediately and grant entrance. They both did not know what they were doing, but Aziraphale found that they were pretty good at it. It felt amazing and soon his body was responding. Something hard pressing against his belly indicated that the angel’s did, too.

Crowley broke the kiss after a while. His pupils were blown wide, leaving only a small circle of gold surrounding them.

“I missed you so much,” he whispered. “I thought I lost you. That I’d never see you again.”

Before the demon could answer, the angel was already kissing him again, more passionately, more possessively. With his wrists still pinned, Aziraphale could not do anything but sigh and moan against the other’s lips. Not that he minded. A surprised gasp escaped his lips when finally Crowley let go of them to focus on his neck instead. The angel applied open mouthed kisses and tender bites to the sensitive skin, pressing himself so close against Aziraphale like he wanted to become one.

“Corael!” Aziraphale exclaimed after an especially harsh and particularly arousing bite.

“It’s Crowley now, remember?” the angel chuckled.

“Terribly sorry, dear,” Aziraphale said between some helpless whimpers.

Impressively fast Crowley took both Aziraphale’s wrists in one of his large hands, securing them above his head while the other tenderly cupped his cheeks.

“Oh, don’t you worry, kitten,” he smirked. “I’ll teach you my new name. When I’m done with you, my name will be all you know.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the chapter you can skip without missing any plot-relevant information. No plot, just porn folks. ;)

Very satisfied with himself Crowley took in Aziraphale’s face. Only minutes ago lines of worry had been drawn on the soft features and the pretty green-blue eyes had been clouded with sadness. Crowley did not like that one bit. Now the demon’s pale skin was flushed, he was breathing heavily and looked at Crowley through half-lidded eyes.

“We… we really shouldn’t,” he half-heartedly objected as the angel maneuvered him towards the bed.

Crowley tsked at him and pushed him to the mattress.

“Really, kitten?” he mock-admonished him while he wished his white robe away, leaving him stark naked. “What kind of demon manages to tempt an angel and backs out then?”

“Well, dear,” Aziraphale rejoined, his eyes wandering along Crowley’s bared body. “Technically a temptation is complete the moment the target is _willing_ to go through with it, not only when they actually did it.”

“Oh my, Aziraphale,” Crowley purred while he slowly undressed the demon beneath him. “Are you saying, you make poor humans dizzy with desire and when they give up, you leave them hanging? Or better…” he guided Aziraphale’s hand towards his erection. “…standing?”

“Uh, well, I…” Aziraphale stammered with a charming deep blush on his round cheeks. “I’m rarely assigned to lust-related jobs, but if I am, then yes, I actually do.”

Feeling more relieved that he had expected he would upon learning that Aziraphale had never gone through with the act, Crowley suppressed a dopey smile.

“You’re crueler than I thought,” he said strictly. “I will have to intervene here.”

“Wh…”

Before Aziraphale could react, Crowley snapped his fingers twice. The demon’s remaining clothes disappeared and he found his hands secured over his head by an invisible force. Licking his lips, Crowley let his eyes wander over his beautiful demon. A pink flush tinted his lovely face. The broad chest and the pudge of his belly fell and rose with his ragged breath. Beneath the cute belly button, a small path of light blond hair led down to a lovely thick and long cock. To no surprise he was uncircumcised but the pink tip already peaked out, signaling Aziraphale’s interest.

“Punishment is in order,” the angel smirked as he straddled the flabbergasted demon.

“Punishment?” Aziraphale asked nervously.

“Oh, don’t look so surprised,” Crowley said while his hands roamed Aziraphale’s deliciously curvy body. “I can’t have you torturing humans by dangling all that in front of their nose and then pulling it away!”

“Oh, I think they’ll live,” Aziraphale said sardonically.

At that Crowley’s touches grew rougher.

“You really have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?” he asked with honest astonishment as he let his hips roll, making his erection move along Aziraphale’s half-hard cock.

“Corael!” escaped Aziraphale’s lip, earning the demon a playful slap.

“What was that?”

“Crowley, I mean, Crowley,” the demon hurried to say.

“Hmm, that’s better.” The angel bent down, his lean chest against the demon’s soft one. “Formalities are important for a proper punishment.”

With that he kissed Aziraphale again, a little gentler this time. The demon responded in kind, involuntary bucking his hips against Crowley’s. A surprised moan fell from the angel’s lips and he was reminded to get on with it.

Truth of the matter was, Crowley was no less a virgin than Aziraphale. Never had he had the chance or the urge to mate with a human and it was not really something that was done between angels. That of course had not prevented Michael to force everyone who was issued with a corporation to attend her class “The functionality of male and female genitalia attached to the human body”. That had been moving on a scale from boring to disturbing in theory, but started making a lot of sense whenever Crowley had watched Adam and Eve in Eden in their more private hours. [1]

So despite his lack of practical experiences Crowley knew quite a few things about arousal, sensitive areas and the act itself. He also knew that different people had different erogenous zones and the best way to find them was trying. And he really had a lot of fun looking for them on Aziraphale’s body.

His long slender fingers caressed every dip and curve of the delicious body beneath him, cataloguing the reactions. His lips kissed and licked along the demon’s jawline, neck and throat, he carefully nibbled at the cute earlobe and now and then allowed himself a tender bite. Every touch, every kiss sent shivers through Aziraphale’s figure, having him moan, writhe and wiggle under Crowley’s ministrations.

Crowley kissed a path down towards the demon’s lower body, but disregarded the now hard member between his legs.

“Cor…” A slap. “Crowley!”

“That’s right, kitten,” the angel chuckled. “Say my name so you memorize it.”

“Crowley, please.”

“Hmm?” Crowley asked in an innocent tone while he dreamily stroke along the soft skin of Aziraphale’s thighs, always stopping short before touching his sex.

“Crowley.”

“Oh, you’re getting a hang of it.”

“Crowley!” Aziraphale all but whined, straining against the invisible bonds.

“What do you need, Aziraphale?” Crowley teased.

“You know that quite well.”

“How could I? I can’t read your mind, kitten.”

“Touch me.”

“I do.”

“You know what I mean!”

“Again: Not a mind reader.”

“Touch my… you know,” Aziraphale lowered his voice. “Penis.”

Crowley had difficulties keeping a straight face. His demon was most likely the only one of his kind to be flustered while naming genitalia. And Crowley found this incredibly enticing. But he managed to control his emotions and expression.

“Oh, don’t you like it if someone riles you up and then does not get on with it?” he mocked. “See what you put those poor humans through?”

“I don’t render them helpless so that they can’t even touch themselves!”

“You don’t really think their hand would do if they thought they’d get this?” Very slowly Crowley’s hands slid from Aziraphale’s knees, along his thighs, over his upper legs towards the broad hips, again without ever touching his cock. It was hard by now, a drop of precum rolling over the tip.

“Crowley, I need you to touch me!”

Crowley smiled smugly and draped himself over the demon’s body. Finally he brought his lips to Aziraphale’s ears.

“Beg,” he whispered.

“What?” Aziraphale turned his head and his aquamarine eyes glowered at the angel.

“You heard me, kitten. Beg.”

“No.” Pouting Aziraphale turned his head sideward.

“Your decision,” Crowley shrugged. “I’m having my fun either way.”

He resumed to kissing along the demon’s neck, down his chest, over the stomach and – of course leaving out the crotch area – back to the lovely thighs. Aziraphale wiggled a little, tested the restraints again and whimpered pitifully.

After a while something unintelligible escaped his lips.

“What was that?” Crowley asked amused, looking up between Aziraphale’s legs.

“Please,” Aziraphale repeated.

“Please what?”

“Please touch me properly.”

“Oh, you can do better, kitten,” Crowley smirked.

Aziraphale bit his lips and arched his back beautifully, apparently hoping for some friction. But then he broke.

“Please, Crowley, have mercy,” he whined. “Yes, I’m begging you. Please touch me. Please!”

Satisfied the angel watched the demon writhing helplessly and listened to his pleas. Very slowly his kisses neared the demon’s member.

“So, are you sorry for letting the poor humans down?” Crowley asked.

But at that Aziraphale fell silent again. After a while Crowley lifted his gaze to look at the demon inquiringly. The demon met his eyes and blushed.

“Can’t say I am,” he said quietly.

“Neither am I,” Crowley gave back softly.

After that he wrapped his lips around Aziraphale’s cock and started to suck. The demon all but screamed and with a quick miracle Crowley made sure nobody heard. His practical experience with this technique and any other was nonexistent, but judging from the delicious sounds Aziraphale made, he was doing well.

While he was working on Aziraphale’s cock with his tongue and lips, he miracled a jar of oil into his hand. While he had only seen sex between man and woman, he knew that intercourse with a partner of the same sex was possible and how it worked between two men – or in this case two man-shaped supernatural beings.

“Crowley,” Aziraphale cried out when the angel’s long fingers breached him.

Crowley grew impatient, his own need pulsating between his legs, and he felt his demon shaking underneath him. With another snap he finished the preparations and pulled his lips from Aziraphale’s member.

“No, please,” the demon begged. “Don’t stop!”

“Sshh,” Crowley shushed him. “I won’t stop. I just want _in_ on the fun.”

“Oh, that was terrible,” Aziraphale managed to giggle breathlessly.

“You’d better be nice, kitten,” Crowley admonished but smiled while doing so.

Taking a deep breath, he lined up his a rock hard, dripping erection with his lover’s entrance. He was aroused to no end, but nervousness caught up with him. He had never done that and the last thing he wanted was hurting Aziraphale. His second thoughts, however, evaporated when another needy moan fell from Aziraphale’s lips.

“Crowley!”

“Right,” the angel nodded. Biting his lip, he braced himself on his elbows and pushed in.

In hindsight he could not believe that the feral growl echoing through the room at this moment, had escaped his own throat. But it had. All apprehension fell from him at the feeling of the tight silken heat around his cock. Slowly but with purpose the angel started to move, spurred on by Aziraphale’s pleas.

“Yes, dear,” he sobbed. “Please keep going, please. There, yes, there.”

Crowley’s pace increased with every sweet sound his demon made. Soon his hips snapped frantically forward, slapping hard against Aziraphale’s plush ass.

It was the strangest thing. Aziraphale was the least demonic demon in existence and yet here Crowley was, bathed in unrivaled lust, selfish greed and undirected jealousy because of fussy little Aziraphale. How was this possible? How could giving in to sin feel like Heaven? But there was no going back for him.

“Don’t ever hide from me again, kitten,” he growled, surging down to apply a possessive bite to the demon’s pale neck.

He swallowed Aziraphale’s cry of pain and surprise in a sloppy kiss while one of his hands took hold of the demon’s erection. He pumped the thick cock in sync with his thrusts into the demon’s beautiful body and the movement of his lips. When he felt Aziraphale trembling, he broke the kiss to watch Aziraphale throw back his head in bliss. The demon’s eyes were closed and his reddened lips open in a silent cry as his channel pulsated and tightened around Crowley’s member, milking his own climax out of his tense body.

They moaned in unison, clinging to each other like drowning men. Almost at the same time they spilled their seed, Aziraphale in white stripes on his belly and over Crowley’s hand, the angel hot and deep into the demon’s body.

Finally Crowley collapsed on Aziraphale, but raised his upper body again a few moments later to tenderly stroke through his lover’s sweaty blonde curls.

Once more their lips found each other in a deep and passionate kiss while the sun was setting over Rome. The night had just begun and they would make good use of it.

[1] Don’t judge Crowley too harshly. Shame hadn’t been invented yet and after a while Eden really got boring.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we pick up the plot again! ;)

Crowley awoke to something tickling his nose. Smiling he found that it were the soft blond curls of the demon in his arms. Unable to help himself, he started kissing the enticing neck, being very careful – and a little guilt-ridden – around the purple bite mark he had left.

Aziraphale purred – literally – and turned around in Crowley’s embrace.

“Hey, you,” the angel said while his hands wandered towards Aziraphale’s plush bottom.

“Good morning,” Aziraphale murmured before trying to wiggle out of the embrace.

“Oi!” Crowley exclaimed, rolling on top of him to hold him down. “Where you think you’re going?”

“I’m hungry,” Aziraphale pouted. “I didn’t have dinner – for well-known reasons! Let me up, please.”

“I don’t know,” Crowley said. “What’s my name?”

“Crowley,” Aziraphale said, rolling his eyes but with a fond smile.

“Hmm, yes, alright,” Crowley nodded approvingly. “But we really should make sure you also remember it under… let’s say ‘pressure’.”

With that he started kissing Aziraphale’s neck again.

“You’re impossible,” sighed the demon.

“Ah, come on, kitten,” Crowley smirked. “Be good for me again and I’ll get you your oysters.”

“For breakfast?”

“Why not? You’re a demon, there are no rules for you.”

“Rules? No. Standards? Yes,” Aziraphale lectured.

Crowley chuckled.

“Well, you certainly have those,” he said softly. “But I think… Damn!”

Crowley sat up quickly and Aziraphale did the same. They both had felt the sudden surge of Divine energy.

“That’s Gabriel,” Crowley growled. “He must have sensed me in the area.”

“I’ll leave,” Aziraphale said, scrambling out of bed. “He won’t talk to any humans. He never liked them very much, rumor says. So he cannot know that this is my room.”

“What? No!” the angel said. “What if you run into him on the street?”

“Well, at least he won’t see us together.”

“No, but he can hurt you – and he will,” Crowley stated. “He thinks you are responsible for the Fall of Man.”

“Which I am.”

“Not the point.”

“I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

“Don’t worry. You won’t. Gabriel is an idiot,” Crowley assured. “You stay up here. I’ll handle Gabriel.”

“But I…”

“No ‘buts’, kitten,” the angel insisted. “You. Stay. Here. And. I. Will. Handle. Gabriel. Understood?”

“Un…understood,” Aziraphale nodded.

“Thank you!” Crowley pressed a kiss to Aziraphale’s forehead. Then he snapped his finger’s to miracle himself decent and walked into the corridor and down the stairs to the inn’s public parlour.

Scowling, he spotted Gabriel, standing awkwardly in the middle of the taproom, blocking the way of every customer and employee, not even trying to fit in. When his gaze fell on Crowley, his stoic expression turned into a wide false smile.

“Corael!” he said.

“It’s Crowley now,” Crowley reminded him.

“Right,” Gabriel nodded. “To be less… conspicuous. So you said, right?”

“Correct.”

“Well, you’re the human expert,” Gabriel laughed. “You probably know better than I do.”

“Yes, I do,” Crowley smiled.

Gabriel’s friendly façade wavered a bit, but did not fall.

“When I arrived I felt residues of demonic activity in another part of the city,” he said casually. “Any trouble?”

“Just a demon bringing about a fight between a few human males,” Crowley answered. “Nothing serious.”

“A demon? What happened?”

“I took care of him.”

“Good.”

“Yes.”

“Excellent”

“I sure think so.”

For a moment they just looked at each other in silence. Crowley knew that Gabriel tried to intimidate him, like he did with all his subordinates. But Crowley would not have it. With ease he held the eerie gaze of Gabriel’s violet eyes.

“Right,” the Archangel finally said. “Listen, we need you to return to Jerusalem. Jesus has been gone for not even a decade and his followers are already infighting, forming separatist groups and all that human shenanigans. We thought about sending Jesus back to set them straight, but it looks like he never arrived in Heaven?”

“Peculiar.”

“Isn’t it? Anyway, you go there and, you know,” Gabriel made an awkward gesture with his hands. “Get them together, alright? Great!”

Then he patted Crowley’s back and left without another word.

After the angel could no longer sense his superior in the area, he hurried back up the stairs. That was not so bad. He sure could convince Aziraphale to come with him. Yes, the demon’s latest memories of Jerusalem were not exactly great, being their fight and Jesus’ death. But they had made up now and as soon as Crowley would let Aziraphale in on Jesus’ well-being, he would be fine with returning to Jerusalem. After all, they had had some good times there.

Confident Crowley returned to Aziraphale’s room with a wide smile. But the chamber was empty. The angel’s heart dropped when he found the demon’s bag was gone as well. The bed was made, the empty wine bottle replaced, the jugs clean. The only thing out of place was a little scroll of parchment. Frowning Crowley unrolled it, only to find it empty.

For a moment he was confused, but then the angel remembered his demon’s fondness for human inventions, secrets and tricks. He stepped to the fireplace, holding the parchment close to the flames, careful not to burn it.

Sure enough, in the warmth, words began to appear on the scroll, written in Aziraphale’s neat hand.

_Dear Crowley,_

_I apologize for not following your wishes, but I could not bear the thought of Gabriel finding out what we did and how he would punish you. So I will leave while he is busy talking to you. Don’t worry about me. I hid my presence from you for years. I will escape his notice for a few hours._

_You know as well as I do that we cannot risk being together too often, but I hope our paths will cross again soon. In the meantime, I’m begging you: Do not underestimate Gabriel - neither his observation skills nor his malignity._

_Yours_

_Aziraphale_

Sighing Crowley sank into the chair near the fireplace. He hated to admit it, but probably Aziraphale was right. They could not openly stroll about the city in each other’s company, as much as he would have liked that. If he wanted to keep Aziraphale in his life, he had to be careful. So with a bleeding heart he threw the letter into the fire and watched it turn to ashes.

He poured himself some wine and heaved a sigh.

“To the next time, kitten,” he murmured before he downed the content of his jug in one swig.

  
The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading part 4 of my take on Reverse Omens. I hope you liked it. Leave me a kudo or a comment with your thoughts. :)


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